LOUISVILLE, Ky. – It was getting late in this masterpiece of a basketball game, the Louisville-loving crowd at the KFC Yum! Center had somehow found a level of noise and intensity beyond “berserk” and about the only difference between the teams was which happened to be in possession of the basketball. At the moment it was Syracuse’s turn, and so freshman forward Jerami Grant slipped into the right corner. It seemed like the perfect place to hide.

Up until 10 days ago, though he was the best NBA prospect on the floor Saturday in a game crowded with future pros, Grant was buried so deep on the Syracuse bench he might as well have been sitting beyond the Gatorade cooler.

When Syracuse opened its Big East road schedule with visits to South Florida and Providence, two of the league’s poorest teams, he played 10 minutes. Combined. So what was he doing on the court now, with the Orange trying to steal a road victory from the No. 1 team in the land?

You want to know? He was calling for the ball. Orange point guard Michael Carter-Williams had it on the right wing and two defenders were squeezing him, and Grant made it exceedingly obvious he was available to bail out his teammate. It didn’t matter that Carter-Williams found some other way out of the trap. Syracuse’s 70-68 victory over No. 1 Louisville on Saturday was as much a product of Grant’s calm demeanor under extraordinary pressure as it was Brandon Triche’s 23 points, Baye Moussa Keita’s five big rebounds or MCW’s game-breaking steal and roundhouse slam dunk for the No. 6 Orange (17-1, 5-0).

“It’s always good to see that he wants it,” Syracuse assistant coach Adrian Autry told Sporting News. “He’s one of those guys that’s better than he thinks he is. That’s the biggest thing as a freshman: not being nervous, not trying to not make a mistake. Just play. Don’t try to play a perfect game. Just play.”

After the game, when coach Jim Boeheim listed all the various Syracuse players who delivered against the Cardinals (16-2, 4-1), who lost for only the seventh time in this building, he then was asked a question about Grant. Boeheim scolded himself immediately.

“I should have probably said him first,” Boeheim said. “He was huge tonight. He got an opportunity, and he’s stepped up. He really has.”

During the first half of the season, when Grant was trusted only to play against Long Beach State and Central Connecticut and not against Arkansas or Temple, assistant coach Adrian Autry was in charge of working with him daily to improve Grant’s skill level. But he also had to ensure Grant did not lose sight of the fact an opportunity would break for him eventually.

This is a dance Syracuse seems to execute better – and more often – than any other program. Guard Dion Waiters, eventually the No. 4 pick in the 2012 draft, played 16 minutes a game as a freshman. Carter-Williams, a McDonald’s All-American in high school and now the nation’s assists leader, averaged 10 minutes only because that doesn’t count the 11 times he didn’t play at all.

Grant has an older brother, Jerian, who is starting and sometimes starring at Notre Dame, and his father Harvey was an NBA player, so that couldn’t have made sitting easy.

Autry said the key to keeping Grant engaged was, essentially, to give him no other choice. “I always told him: This is a long season – with our roster, you’re going to have an opportunity at some time due to foul trouble, due to injury, due to whatever.”

Uh, welcome to “whatever.”

On Jan. 12, with the Orange about to face Villanova at the Carrier Dome, Syracuse announced senior forward James Southerland had been declared ineligible and would be inactive “until further notice.” The university still is waiting as the NCAA examines the program’s academic records, according to the Syracuse Post-Standard.

It seems a bit curious that the NCAA reportedly is picking through one of Southerland’s term papers when it has taken no apparent action against North Carolina and its 54 admittedly “aberrant” classes from the Afro and African-America studies department, many of which contained significant numbers of athletes. But that’s where things stand.

“We all feel for James and his situation, but at the same time we have to move on,” Grant told Sporting News. “I definitely knew I had to step up. Everybody that doesn’t get as much playing time had to step up, and me especially since I play his position.”

Though it’s a little cruel to suggest as much, Syracuse has benefited from Southerland’s absence in the sense it forced the coaches to unleash Grant’s talent. In scoring 10 points and grabbing five rebounds in 35 minutes of playing time against Louisville, Grant performed some athletic feats only a few other collegians even could imagine. One of the day’s most impressive plays was a sweeping, sudden drive that ended with a dunk he missed. He didn’t score? Sure, but did everybody see how he got there?

Boeheim admits he has seen stuff like this from Grant throughout the team’s practice sessions, but he was more impressed by the two jumpshots he made and his two perfect free throws, not bad for someone who shot 38 percent while a deep reserve.

“He couldn’t make any shots, couldn’t make his free throws,” Boeheim said. “Adrian’s done a wonderful job with him. He made a foul-line jumpshot, and he couldn’t do that before. He made athletic plays in practice, but … you get in the games, you don’t get too many dunks.

”But he’s worked hard, and he’s gotten better. He’s going to be a big-time player. He’s the most live athlete I think I’ve ever had. And he’s a great kid.”

Grant waited his turn, certainly. And now it’s here: sooner than imagined, perhaps, and under less than ideal circumstances. He is not hiding from the opportunity.